Ghost Fever

Year releasted: 1987

by Nathan Rabin
October 18th, 2000

The '80s were a time of unsurpassed wealth and prosperity, as the nation moved beyond petty concerns (homelessness, social inequity) to more pressing issues (battling ghosts). Who better to lead the fight than Sherman Hemsley, a me-generation icon thanks to his work as sassy social climber George Jefferson? Hemsley stars in Ghost Fever as a superstitious policeman sent to foreclose on the legendary Magnolia house alongside fellow cop and Electric Company vet Luis Avalos. Avalos has reservations about evicting the inhabitants, but Hemsley has other concerns. "They say inside is, like, a medieval castle with secret trap doors, hidden rooms, and even a torture chamber," Hemsley says of the supposedly haunted estate, a fact proven upon their arrival. They also discover it to be inhabited by a ghost dedicated to haunting the living in the cheapest fashion imaginable, whether by eating chicken, cheating at pool, or simply locking the hapless Hemsley in a genital-torturing machine. A comedy with a conscience, Ghost Fever also addresses racism in all its supernatural forms: The two men learn from the house's comely female inhabitants that its ghost, their ancestor, is a former slave owner not partial to "folks of the colored persuasion," expressing his posthumous rage via primitively animated powder-blue thunderbolts. It also turns out that the old slave-abuser is no slouch on the dance floor: "Why, great-great-granddad, you're a great, great dancer!," coos his delighted descendent after a particularly spirited round of ballroom dancing. Not to be outdone, Hemsley and Avalos bust moves of their own, prompting the great-great-dancing great-great-granddad to assume mummy form and bust out with some wild-style breakdancing moves, including an undead moonwalk. At the stroke of midnight, great-great-granddad inexplicably turns into a vampire obsessed with turning Hemsley and Avalos into zombies. The duo defeats him but still must both save the Magnolia house and pad the film by another half hour, a process that involves a ridiculously protracted boxing sequence featuring the legendary Smokin' Joe Frazier, the fiery deaths of both stars, and two songs sung by Hemsley.